Monday, September 22, 2014

An Odd Request for a Wedding Gift

Hammy (the working title) finished on Day 5JAMON IBERICOoil 24" x 24" on gallery wrapped canvas with 2" deep sides

Now, I have been asked to paint some strange things, the seagull commission comes to mind, and the time I was requested to paint dandelions, but this one tops them all! Delighted to have been invited to their wedding, I asked Alison and John to send me half a dozen photos from their trip to Spain, last fall, so that I could consider options and select one to create a wedding gift painting from. Time passed. No photos came. I prompted them and finally they sent me this one image ...

I flipped and fired off a message to say "We need to talk, call me!" Days passed. They didn't phone. That's when I sat myself down for a heart to heart talk. I rationed that they wouldn't have sent a photo of hams if they didn't want a painting of hams, then reminded myself that I can paint anything - it's a matter of wanting to! This was simply another life challenge; to work with a subject that had no appeal to me. I ruminated, incubated and enlisted ideas from Bill and friends. At long last I came up with a concept and set to work.

Day One - The Sketch

Day Two - Using acrylic paints, thinly, I blocked in the colour and (not shown) I textured the wall with Golden Hard Moulding Paste

Day Three - I switched to oils, developed the arched wall and all but finished the top rail of hams

Day Four - Into the painting I imbedded the Black Pig Bistro logo - an embossed foil top of their chicken liver parfait dish

At the end of day five the piece was complete. Here are some detail photos of the painting ...

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The empty wine glasses symbolize how the wedding is just the beginning of their life together. On the reverse of the canvas, my dedicationasks them to fill the glasses with their marriage.The joy on their faces when they opened the painting, well, it made it all worth while!

And because I scooped some wedding photos from Kay Boody Bieber I can offer you this lovely shot of the wedding party ...

What a wonderful photo essay of the request, planning and conception. You did a tremendous job of a challenging subject, and obviously made both Alison and John very happy with the results. Well done, Alice.